Motherhood, Craftiness & Other Lovely Things

crafting

Hiiiiiiiiiii. It’s almost like I just woke up from a blogging nap — a little groggy, some sheet wrinkle marks on my face, getting my bearings — but I do feel nice and refreshed!

I kind of want to just blab for a few minutes about creativity, creative process and some things that have been helping me step out of my comfort zone a bit. I don’t know if anyone can identify with this process I’m in, but I would really love for you to share your own experience and give your wonderfully unique input in the comments.

I’ve been experimenting and trying some new things creatively and it’s been kind of an adventure. A few years back, I wrote this rage filled post… and then this OTHER rage filled post about Pinterest and how I felt like it was stealing my artistic voice, making me want to punch throats and burn down the Pinterest headquarters or something along those lines.

At the time, I remember feeling very frustrated with the whole Pinterest concept because I was seeing thousands upon thousands of people’s work, art, ideas and daily it left me feeling like I was a stinky fart cloud in comparison. It didn’t feel like I had much else to contribute because everyone else had already covered all the bases. So I threw a little hissy fit for a few years and lost the joy of crafting. I was very defeated. I know it sounds dramatic… it was fantastically dramatic. But it was also very revealing of a bad root in my heart.

The bottom line is: I didn’t feel like my stuff held a candle to what was already created. Looking back, I can also see that I was placing too much of my identity in the things I made. That made me feel like a copycat, a failure, and one faceless depressed crafter in a sea of flourishing artistic dolphins. I don’t know, don’t dolphins seem majestic and joyful and just straight up content with who they are? I didn’t feel that at all.

Can you remember being a kid and just being completely proud with whatever you made? My kids love to draw, paint, build legos, build forts, etc. and when they show me something they created, the joy is evident on their sweet faces. They are tapping into who they really are and in those moments, they are thriving! As their mama, I love seeing it happen. I want them to feel that joy all the time! I remember this simple memory of sitting with my friends on the playground and making daisy chain bracelets for each other. That’s a memory which takes me back to a completely pure feeling of creativity, without any comparison, without any fear, without any defeat. Just a group of little girls talking about Jonathan Taylor Thomas or whoever and making bracelets for each other. No one cared that we were all making the same exact thing — there was just joy in the process of making something.

I shared a little a while ago about how I was trying to break out of the familiar and trying something new in the form of watercolor. I have to admit, I abso-freaking-hated the things I painted at first. There was cringing, crying and crumpling of paper involved. Obviously, I took my supposed failure very personally, believing that because I didn’t make something perfect, I wasn’t worth much. But I reluctantly kept at it. Over time, I started just enjoying the simple act of painting. I’m finding that when I’m in that mindset of not performing, not striving to be perfect, not putting pressure on myself to make something unique and not comparing my stuff to everything else that’s out in the world, there’s no pressure and I actually make some pretty amazing stuff. The peaceful mindset is EVERYTHING. Being content with just being me brings that element of uniqueness to the things I make because duh, I’m the only me on the Earth. I couldn’t appreciate the great things I was already doing because I wasn’t recognizing my own value. I couldn’t see that, as simple as it is!

It is such a relief to have some of those comparative mindsets starting to be severed because I can’t truly be happy for anyone else or celebrate anyone else’s art, creativity or life victories in general if I’m constantly in that state of frustration toward myself. So yeah. That’s where I am at the moment. It’s very new and I still catch myself looking to the right and the left and have to internally smack myself a little, reminding myself that I’m in my own lane. There are no limits in my own lane because it’s only me and the open road ahead!

Simply put, these are the things that have helped me rediscover the joy in creativity:

Remembering which activities brought me joy as a child

Creating something new, different and challenging every once in a while

Throwing mindsets of comparison and defeat STRAIGHT out the window

Appreciating my unique qualities and giftings which help me to thrive right where I am!

Now I want to hear about you!

Would you say you’re a creative person?

What do you love to do, make, create?

Where do you find inspiration?

How do you overcome creative ruts?

I would think most of you would say you’re creative, even if you think it’s on a minimal level. If you’re not one to identify with that, please feel free to chime in anyway! I’d still like to hear from you in the comments about what you like to do for fun and maybe it’ll spark the rest of us to think outside the box and find new inspiration! xoxo

Hello dears! I have some more great Dollar Tree finds from a recent trip. This time, it’s all craft supplies!

Adorable floral fabric tape — makes my heart go pitter patter.

I was very impressed with the selection of arts and crafts supplies for kids (…aaaaand adults who have no shame in their crafting game). That assortment of modeling clay! ONE DOLLAR for all those colors. I mean, I have no idea what to do with it, but I couldn’t resist. We’ll figure it out. I bought the beads and thread for Maddie to make some friendship bracelets.

Pom poms — again, with the no plan or purpose for these things. Ideas?

My recent tutorial for these Easy Floral Letters used flowers I bought on this shopping trip. I didn’t find ALL of these flowers there, but most of them! Those sunflowers, large hot pink and purple flowers… nice sized bunches for a buck. You really can’t beat it.

Have you found anything great at your dollar store lately? Let us all know in the comments!

A few weeks ago, I was at my local Dollar Tree and I found some surprisingly nice looking fake flowers. I grabbed up a few bunches for crafty purposes, naturally! This weekend, Maddie and I got to work on a cute idea I’ve seen floating around for a while now — floral monograms!

It’s a very simple project that only took about half an hour. It was great to spend some time with my girl and give her a chance to have some creative say in how her “M” looked.

Here’s what you need:

A variety of fake flowers — I purchased mine at The Dollar Tree. (Wasn’t in the mood to make felt flowers, to be perfectly honest, but that is another adorable option!)

3D Paper Mache Letter

Exacto Knife

Hot Glue

Felt (optional, but helpful)

Here’s what you do:

Use your exacto knife to carefully cut out the front of your letter, leaving it hollow.

Trace and cut out felt to fit in your letter, then glue it inside. It’s okay if it is too big or too small — no one will see it. The felt should help with keeping the flowers in place. Another layer or two would help add a little height if you are using smaller flowers.

Choose your flower arrangement and start gluing!

Voila! They turned out pretty cute, I have to say.

Maddie loves her creation and it fits right in with her uber girly decor. ;)

And we had to make one for Roo Boo too. She couldn’t care less, but I love it. :)

In this crafty post from a few weeks ago, I mentioned something about doing a tutorial on those big felt flowers. So here I am to deliver! Don’t let all these photos fool you — they’re really quite simple.

You will need:

I cut three small petals and 5 larger petals for this particular flower. Sorry, no template — just eyeball it. Even circles will work!

The long yellow rectangle will be the shaggy center of the flower. Let’s tackle that first.

Fold the long rectangle in half, hot dog style and make small snips with scissors all along the raw edge.

I stand by my awesome “hot dog style” description.

This is just to show how you want it to look after the snips. Keep it folded over.

Your folded fringe piece will want to pop open and can be kind of a pain to keep straight, so you may want to dab a few dots of glue (I use hot glue) along the inner crease to hold it in place as you do the next step.

“Roll it like a sleeping bag”, adding a few dots of glue along the way.

When you reach the end, dab a generous amount of glue to hold it together reeeeaaaaal secure-like.

BAM. You have your center.

Now let’s assemble!

Start with one of the three small petals and glue it to the yellow center. I make a little line of glue near the tapered edge of the petal and just stick it on there. Build on your flower by overlapping the petals until it looks appealing to you. When you’re finished with the small ones, move on to the larger ones.

You may find you like a more loose look with big floppy petals or you may prefer it tidy and compact. Sometimes I’ll use a few different shades of felt to give it more depth, as seen in the flower box post. Feel free to add more petals to make the flower larger and experiment with different petal shapes as well.

You do you, girl. You do you.

A note on leaves:

It can be difficult to freehand-cut leaves and have them all look the same, so here’s a little tip on making them more uniform. Start with a small square of felt.

What I do is eyeball how big I want the leaf and make a little poke mark in the felt with the tip of my scissors where the point will be. Then I’ll cut in to that point from two outer edges of the square. I hope that makes sense! It’s not perfect every time, but it gives you a similar shape. Sometimes I’ll use the 90 degree corner if I’m wanting a super crisp look.

There you go! I hope you have fun with these flowers. Please feel free to ask any questions! xoxo

When I’m at Target 7 times a week (exaggerating, but don’t dare me), I can’t help but browse the Dollar Spot and check out the adorable seasonal decor and crafty thingamabobs! I’ve been seeing these Easter themed wood boxes lately. I couldn’t help but to be drawn to the gold and white polka dot details along the sides! I picked it up and saw that it wasn’t a solid block of wood, but it had a hollow back. Since I’ve been making felt succulent boxes lately, I immediately thought of another use for this little guy…

I added some felt flowers and a few fake sprigs and I had myself a new display box! It’s a pretty good way to re-purpose something seasonal that you wouldn’t really use the rest of the year. I’m all about finding multiple uses for things… I have been known to put leftover nipple cream from my nursing days on my heels and elbows. I know, my resourcefulness knows no bounds!

Ruthie was sitting next to me at the dining room table and wanted in on the flower action. She kept saying, “Umm…” and I finally realized I mindlessly say “umm… hmm…” while I’m crafting. UMM weird.

So would anyone be interested in a tutorial explaining how I made the flowers? I think I will work on that in the near future!